StoryGnat#22: A dark dinner
Am I Queen of the North?
Hey hey StoryGnatter, it’s good to see you here.
If you’ve been here since the early days, you’ll have ventured into one little nook of my family history already . Today, we’re headed into another.
And it’s not for the faint-hearted. But it might explain why I’m a little suspicious of your invite to dinner...
The Black Dinner
If you’ve read or watched the Game of Thrones series, you’ll be familiar with the Red Wedding. Well, in a 2013 interview with EW.com, George R R Martin told us all about the inspiration for that infamous scene:
“The Red Wedding is based on a couple real events from Scottish history. One was a case called The Black Dinner. The king of Scotland was fighting the Black Douglas clan. He reached out to make peace. He offered the young Earl of Douglas safe passage. He came to Edinburgh Castle and had a great feast. Then at the end of the feast, [the king’s men] started pounding on a single drum. They brought out a covered plate and put it in front of the Earl and revealed it was the head of a black boar — the symbol of death. And as soon as he saw it, he knew what it meant. They dragged them out and put them to death in the courtyard.”
Delightful.
Find out more in this lovely video:
Ah, I love being a Douglas. And yes, there are a lot of us out there, but we’re as sure as we can be that this story relates to our particular branch. The story does date back to 1440, though, so I like to think we’ve moved on.
In case you’re wondering, the second incident Martin credits as inspiration for the Red Wedding is the arguably better known Glencoe Massacre – which there’s lots about online if you aren’t already familiar with it.
It’ll be something a little lighter next week, I promise.
Join me then,
Meg